Top 20 family friendly museums

We announce the museums that have made it on to the longlist of the
Telegraph's Family Friendly Museum Award

Visit the pit ponies at the National Coal Mining Museum, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

4:42PM BST 01 Jun 2015

You told us in your hundreds where you’d had the best family days out at a museum. You nominated one-room volunteer-run museums with a collection of local pots; big, national museums of worldwide fame; high art galleries stuffed with Impressionists; open air museums inhabited by costumed guides in period dress; Tudor palaces; Victorian mines; museums housed in old post offices, battlements and gunneries. There have been more than 800 nominations to Britain’s biggest museum award, from the tip of Cornwall to Morayshire. But only 20 could make it to the longlist. Here is the longlist for the Telegraph Family Friendly Museum Award.

The Telegraph Family Friendly Museum Award is run by charity Kids in Museums. A panel of volunteers spent a long day whittling them all down to just 20 museums - those that go the extra mile to welcome families and visitors of all ages.

So what happens next? The longlist is put before a panel of experts, including celebrity children’s author Damian Dibben and historian and broadcaster Helen Castor. They choose a shortlist of six.

These six museums are road-tested anonymously by families.

These families pick the winner.

Do you want to be one of the mystery family museum judges and help choose who wins? Just email award@kidsinmuseums.org.uk before July 1, telling us a little bit about your family and why you want to be judges.

An open-air museum to experience life in North East England in the 1820s, 1900s and 1940s.

“My children and nieces and nephews are different ages but they all enjoy the Beamish and its activities. So much to do through the year and fantastic value for money with the unlimited ticket. They even manage to get my son to eat vegetable soup as he saw it being made over the fire!” Tanya Wills

Another open-air museum (which is popular with families) portraying the inspiring stories of real people, their streets and homes, work and daily lives so visitors can see, taste, feel, smell, hear and join in 300 years of Black Country history. Hands-on demonstrations, costumed interpreters and street theatre helps brings these scenes alive.

A rare treat – a family friendly high art gallery housed in a restored Georgian mansion set in 120 acres of park. Whatever the weather, play in the park, enjoy the adventure playground, pick up a free park trail or head inside to take part in creative art activities and explore art with free discovery back-packs.

“Compton Verney is, without doubt, the most family friendly museum I have ever been to. The whole experience from entering, visiting the adventure playground, visiting the galleries and using the activity bags, the grounds, the family learning room (where children are encouraged to get stuck in and make a mess), the cafe and the activities (storytelling, forest school) mean every visit is a pleasure. I have three children under six, and it’s rare to go somewhere that is child friendly’ and means it.’ Nina Barker

Volunteer-run and based in an old Victorian Gun Battery in Gosport, this is the only UK museum dedicated to underwater exploration. Do trails and puzzles, and dress up in diving suits and explore the insides of real diving bells and chambers.

A small but perfectly formed museum situated in the town of Elgin, containing more 36,000 individual objects from the local area and the wider world ranging from fossils to coins to modern day artefacts, and almost entirely run by volunteers.

Explorer sacks, trails to a friendly café and drop-in workshops all year round.

We are regular visitors to Gallery Oldham and my two children (aged seven and three) love it. This weekend we had a lovely lunch in the cafe including hot dog and ice cream. Then they pretended to be monsters in the green-lit lift, followed by a felt making workshop which they loved. We then played dressing up and shop. Suzy, Keith, Daisy and Max Robinson

Home to the Kings and Queens of England for 500 years, the Palace sits in 60 acres of glorious gardens on the banks of the River Thame. Step back in time and explore the corridors of royal power and pleasure.

‘Hampton Court Palace is a fun-packed, evocative day out in Tudor history. Where else can you see Henry VIII trying to placate Anne Boleyn, feel the weight of a metal gauntlet (one of the actors allowed my daughter to try his on), see real tennis played and sit in the king’s place at high table in the magnificence of the Great Hall?’ Timon Molloy

This museum has three large permanent galleries for geology, natural history and human history displays

'Kids love Haslemere Museum with its plethora of natural history exhibits – a bear, bees, an Egyptian Mummy. Children are invited to do quizzes (with parents too) and borrow study packs. Indulgent grandparents can find little gifts in the shop. And then there is the garden of natural trails including the live honey bee hive.’ Susanna and Stewart Brown

C19th and C20th history comes to life, with captivating stories, re-creations and hands-on displays you’re encouraged to touch and use. Learn what it’s like to have lived in an age without modern technology. Make toast on a range, operate early telephones, play games in the parlour, write on slates and experience an air raid.

‘Milton Keynes Museum is the best museum for children we have been to. It’s interactive from the front door with a juke box which the kids can work. The museum flows from a Victorian house, in which the kids can play blow football, grammophones, pretend to be in a Victorian classroom, to a kitchen where they can make toast on an open fire. A street of Victorian shops gives children insight into how people used to shop and a working waterwheel is often the first thing my boys want to see. My oldest, at three and a half years old, loves to explain how the water wheel works as he’s seen it so regularly.

"The highlight of our visit is always the telephone exhibit, with hundreds of old telephones which work and are connected and old telephone exchanges for the kids to use. The volunteers are always keen to help explain how it all works and never say no to a child exploring. They encourage trial, error and learning in this fabulous collection. When I ask my three year old what he wants to do, nine out of ten times he says “Go to the museum!” Chris Johnson

“The River and Rowing Museum is an inspiring place with lots of activities for all ages, in particular centred around the story Wind in the Willows. Lots of dressing up, with Mr Toad and his motor horn, and Ratty and Mole. The galleries display all things related to rowing; families can try rowing machines, feel the weight of different oars and have a go on a trireme! Children can dress up in blazers and boaters. There are some really fun interactive displays, opening drawers, pulling levers, lifting lids, building bridges and listening to all the sounds of the river birds and animals.” Pip Taylor

A Victorian palace of learning packed with collections from across the world and throughout time. Roman costumes to try on, mosaics to design, mini-mummies to bandage, touchable rocks and fossils, step stools throughout and a family friendly café.

Discover local history, including the Tivvy Bumper steam engine, and go on a guided walk.

“Tiverton Museum has something for everyone to enjoy young or old. The whole museum buzzes with loads of craft things to do for the children, wonderful model railways and engines for the railway buffs. I couldn’t get my grandson off the Tivvy Bumper engine, he loved pressing the button to start the engine up and pulling the whistle. The staff - all volunteers - were so welcoming and friendly, creating a lovely atmosphere. I noticed in their visitors’ comment book that someone visiting from South Africa said it was a ‘world-class museum’. I would agree with that!” Christine and grandson Oskar

A gallery dedicated to promoting the legacy of William Morris and committed to Morris’s words ‘Art for All’.

‘The last Saturday of each month is Family Day at the William Morris Gallery, when families have a chance to work together on collage, watercolour, marbling, print-making, dress-up, photography. Families are inspired to explore the gallery’s collections, learn new skills and have fun.’ Andrea Hall

Bringing the story of Northumberland’s coal mining heritage, its proud people and their passions to life through stunning historic buildings, emotive interactive displays, the unique Pitmen Painters Art Collection. Be inspired by the awesome Brick Planet exhibition, marvel at miniature wonders from around the world recreated in Lego bricks, have a go at the hands-on creation station, and make a mask to take home.